In this ongoing series, we are sharing advice, tips and insights from real entrepreneurs who are out there doing business battle on a daily basis. (Answers have been edited and condensed for clarity.)
Tell us about yourself and your business.
My name is Livia Anne Guarnieri, founder of TROIKA360. I am an SME (subject matter expert) and a proprietary strategic consultant in the OEM (original equipment manufacturing) space. I work with vehicle manufacturers at a corporate level. If an OEM wants to know what type of service providers are out there and if they offer viable solutions, I will help them find one that best fits their needs.
Alternatively, I may build them a boutique solution so they aren’t tied to something that doesn’t serve them long-term. I also help service providers of all types understand how an OEM works internally so they can create better products and services. It’s very niche, but the need is very real.
What inspired you to launch your own business?
Becoming an entrepreneur wasn’t what inspired me to create my business. My business was created out of necessity when I felt I had no other options. I worked for a well-known company in a forgotten department that had been in the red for quite some time. By building relationships with customers, I could take that departmental deficit and turn it into a multi-million dollar asset. Looking back, I believe they took me on as an employee to create credibility in the department, raise the valuation, and then sell it. And this is exactly what ended up happening. The only problem with the company’s plan is that these customers weren’t their customers; they were my customers. I had long-standing relationships with all of them, and these customers asked me to find them an alternative solution.
Some people experience an “Aha!” moment that results in starting their business. For me, it was less of an “Aha!” moment and more of an “Oh shit!” moment. I was completely blindsided, but I knew I had to make it happen because it felt like it was now or never, and I was not about to let my customers down.
What has been the most challenging part of growing your business?
One of the most challenging moments was when I had to re-pitch my request for a proposal response to the same people I pitched to just a few weeks before against the same candidates. It felt like the longest day of my career. But what I proved that day, above all else, was my unique systems, unique methods and lifelong expertise. None of those things were in any way attached to any of the other solutions out there; they were distinctly my solutions. So, I was able to build a completely boutique system without the backing of a larger corporation. However, it also meant I had to find the partnerships that fit this boutique system. My only requirement was that it had to provide value to the OEM first, not to the service providers I was bringing in.
Related: ‘We’re Curating Happiness’: How This Entrepreneur Is Transforming the Wellness Space
What is something you think many aspiring entrepreneurs think they need but actually don’t?
I think many aspiring business owners feel pressure to do it all right at this second. Although you should always strike while the iron is hot, doing it just to do it won’t help. You don’t need an immediate office, a fully built-out website or a brand-new computer. What you need is passion and persistence. Building your business should feel like something you were born to do. You have to wake up every day, look at yourself in the mirror, believe with your whole heart and tell yourself out loud, “This is going to work out because this is what I was meant to do.”
I truly believe that your belief in yourself is what makes others believe in you as well. With my business, I had to put it together very quickly, but if I wasn’t truly passionate about doing it for the greater good of the industry versus the greater good of myself, I don’t believe I could have achieved my success. I also never allowed myself to speak negatively into the universe because the universe is always listening.
Related: All True Entrepreneurs Share This One Personality Trait, Says the Founder of Spicewell
Was there a moment when you saw this business was going to be a success?
In the end, when my industry saw that I was working towards rising the tide instead of just my boat, customers began to seek me out instead of me seeking them out. My business built itself because I stayed humble. Even when achieving things far beyond my expectations, I stayed humble and grateful. I did the work instead of basking in the glory. I believe that is what it means to be an entrepreneur. Find your niche, make sure your work is distinctively yours and be true to yourself and not your ego.
Any advice for entrepreneurs looking to carve out their own behind-the-scenes niche business?
The best advice I can give budding entrepreneurs wanting to do this work is that strategic consulting happens in silence, in the wings and shadows and out of the spotlight. When you move in silence, your competition has no idea you’re even in the game, and you can use that underestimation to your benefit.
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This story originally appeared on Business Insider.
Before I knew it, I had destroyed my life. I was a rail-thin 19-year-old, and I was so poor, I spent every morning walking through fast food drive-thrus so I could collect enough change to buy a candy bar and a soda to hold me over for the day.
I got a job at In-N-Out Burger, and after a year of working there, I asked my boss for a raise. He told me instead that I should join the morning crew. Little did I know that meant I would be scrubbing toilets at 5 a.m. and waiting for the Arizona sun to come up so I could clean the parking lot.
The author when he was working at In-N-Out Burger. Courtesy of Michael Clendenen
I found myself scrubbing concrete by day and doing punk-rock shows by night. Meanwhile, my friends were graduating college, getting married, and having kids.
By 22, my life was even worse. I was living out of a single motel room with five other people and a chihuahua to save money. I didn’t even have an internet connection — let alone a smartphone, a computer, or a car.
But I turned it all around, and I’m now a six-figure copywriter and direct-response marketer who’s worked with Fortune 100 companies, USA BMX, political campaigns, and more, strategizing marketing and copy. Here’s how I did it by teaching myself and sending out letters.
In 2017, a friend asked me to write an ad selling his Mustang in exchange for 10% of the sale
I’d never written an ad before, so I borrowed my friend’s phone and Googled “how to write a good advertisement.” I discovered a newsletter called “The Gary Halbert Letter.” I read one of the newsletters, in which he said he could charge a client $15,000 for a letter he wrote in his underwear at his kitchen table.
That was when I knew this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.
I read every newsletter Halbert had. When I was done with those, I’d sit on the floor at Barnes & Noble and read all the marketing books in the store because I couldn’t afford to buy them.
Next, I had to figure out how to find clients.
Sending letters changed everything
The No. 1 strategy I learned from Halbert was to send letters in the mail to businesses to land clients. But it wasn’t that easy in the beginning because I didn’t have many resources.
I started writing copy at the library. One friend would drop me off in the morning, and another would help me get home. I was writing my letters by hand, and when I ran out of paper, the kind librarian would give me printer paper to write on.
I used the Reference USA database — now known as Data Axle — that the library had to find the addresses of businesses I wanted to work with. I landed my first client through a letter. I decided I would work on commission only, and only with businesses that I had a personal vested interest in.
My letters were so effective, I didn’t feel the need to jump on the social-media train
In a world of content creators but without consistent internet access at my disposal, letters were my only option, which worked in my favor and made me stand out.
One of the first groups of people I started working with was chiropractors because I felt strongly about the work they did. When I was younger, I’d been in several car accidents, and I had scoliosis. My treatment from a chiropractor helped me heal, and that’s how I opened my letter.
I didn’t talk about all of the things that I could do for them — I told chiropractors in my area why I was passionate about their work and why I was emotionally invested in them, and I gave them the opportunity to explore working together. It was honest and built instant rapport.
These are the same principles that I use in my clients’ copy now. I still work with chiropractors, but I’ve expanded to working with relationship coaches, data scientists, and anxiety coaches. I also coach other copywriters on both their copywriting skills and obtaining clients using letters.
I now make between $8,000 and $17,000 per month in profit
I work around 35 hours a week, and my income has increased as I’ve brought on more clients. My work brings in between $40,000 and $100,000 per month on average for my clients.
I now have my own place filled with furniture that I bought. I have a successful business without spending all of my time on social media, and I just turned 27.
Even to this day, when I want to bring on new clients, I send out a new batch of letters. Snail mail saved my life and completely changed my future.
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Most of us dream of making changes in our lives, of reinventing ourselves and our careers. But financial considerations, the anxiety of the unknown, and fear of failure often prevent us from going for it.
Change is hard—and it’s scary. But it’s also well within our grasp.
Author Joanne Lipman spoke to hundreds of people who have made successful career pivots, and interviewed researchers and scientists who have studied big transitions and transformations. To her surprise, she discovered that most career changes follow a similar pattern that can be broken down into steps, which she maps out in her new book “Next! The Power of Reinvention in Life and Work.”
Photo by: Gannett
Lipman’s also walked the walk. In her own career, she transitioned from being editor-in-chief of USA Today and The Wall Street Journal Weekend Journal into a bestselling author and speaker.
I spoke to her for the podcast Write About Now about the steps, what she calls the 4 S’s — search, struggle, stop, and solution.
1. The search
All career changes begin with a search to do something different.
“This is when you start collecting information about where you’re actually going to end up,” Lipman says. “The cool thing about this search phase is that almost everybody I interviewed didn’t realize they were searching. It was totally unintentional.”
She cites the example of a telephone repairman, Chris Donovan, who sketched pictures of women’s shoes in his spare time. He drew these designs for years (for fun) until his husband discovered them and encouraged Donovan to pursue his love of shoe design as a new career. The result was Chris Donovan Footwear, a successful woman’s luxury fashion shoe brand.
When determining your career change, take stock of your interests and passions and try not to overthink them by weighing every pro and con. Instead, trust your gut, Lipman says.
“People who successfully switch careers,” she says, “often cite the power of gut instinct.”
And research backs that up. In one study, British and Turkish students were asked to predict the winner of a British soccer match. The Turks, who knew nothing about the teams, were just as accurate in their predictions as the Brits. Why? Because they didn’t overanalyze all the factors —such as injuries, previous scores, and player stats — they just went with their instincts.
Lipman suggests shadowing someone who does what you’d like to do and take notes. Write down your goals and thoughts. Research shows that taking simple actions will help execute your vision.
2. The struggle
This is the toughest stage of any career change and can last an uncomfortably long time.
“It’s when you’re disconnecting yourself from your previous identity, but you haven’t quite figured out the identity where you are going to land,” says Lipman.
But this struggle is also the most critical phase of your transformation. You’ve made the transition but are not seeing success soon enough—maybe ever.
Lipman says one way to manage the stress of the struggle phase is to remain nimble.
“People who turn failure into success do it in increments. Instead of throwing up their hands and throwing it out, they actually iterate and iterate and iterate,” she says. “They tweak, adjust, and fiddle after every flameout.”
3. The stop
The struggle leads you to the third phase of change—the stop.
Lipman describes this as “either something that you may choose, like, “I’m quitting my job.” Or it might be something thrust on you, like, “I got laid off from my job,” or there was an illness or a divorce in my family.”
Lipman tells the story of Marla Ginsburg, a former TV producer whose career and investments were wiped out after the 2007 television writer’s strike and the 2008 recession. She began a second career as a fashion designer, which was going fine until her son was diagnosed with Parkinson’s. This was her stop.
“She was in Amsterdam, only focused on her son and his treatments,” Lipman explains. “It was the weirdest thing she said because of the change in scenery plus the absolute stopping in her tracks. She suddenly had this creative spurt. She came up with this idea for her brand, which is called MarlaWynne.”
It’s one of the top brands on QVC and HSN, with revenues topping $60 million, according to Forbes.
4. The solution
The final chapter of your career change journey marks the beginning of a whole new chapter in your life.
The solution is when everything leading up to this point—the search, the struggle, the stop— coalesces, and you know what you have to do.
The solution is the answer.
Lipman talks about mega-writer James Patterson (Along Came a Spider), who worked in the advertising industry until he was 50. But Patterson always harbored fantasies of being a full-time novelist (the search). He published a few books and mostly got terrible reviews (the struggle), but he was honing his craft and hesitant to quit his day job.
Then he had an “aha moment.” He was stopped (literally) in terrible traffic on the New Jersey Turnpike, returning home from his beach house on a Sunday night.
“He’s looking on the other side of the road, and it’s “whoosh, whoosh”— all these other cars going back to the beach,” Lipman explains. And he said, ‘I’m on the wrong side of the road. I gotta get to the other side.’ He returned to New York, quit his job, and that was when he said, “I’m a writer.”
That solution earns him $60 million a year.
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